traveling faster than light

Discussion in 'Pseudoscience' started by froze, Apr 12, 2017.

  1. froze Registered Member

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    2
    There was an old discussion here about traveling at the speed of light and two objects traveling at the same speed collided head n what would happen. Which basically the discussion left at there wasn't anything that can go faster than the speed of light when the discussion asked what would happen if the two objects could go faster than the speed of light. Something being able to go faster than the speed of light for years was "known" to be impossible is now in serious doubt, read: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/4...tally-discovered-faster-than-light-travel.htm

    Space travel as we know it today would take far too long for travelers to go to the next closest galaxy, they would probably be dead before they got there unless we perfected Cryogenic sleep and could successfully wake them up alive when they got to wherever they were going, but this itself presents a problem in that they wouldn't be able to report what they found till they got back to earth and that could be thousands of years later.

    Traveling at the speed of light presents another problem in that the universe is littered with rocks, some very large, all just whizzing around aimlessly, so if a craft moving along at the speed of light hits any object, which would be undetected because radar couldn't reach out past the craft because of the speed of the craft, so the craft would hit the object and be instantly destroyed, even a small speck could have the same effect of destroying the craft.

    So let's now assume that a spacecraft is made that uses the EM Drive engine as indicated in the above website, and that craft can travel at say 1000 times the speed of light, would that craft be able to penetrate large objects, say the size of the earth, (though size wouldn't matter in this case), so fast that not one atom would be disturbed in either the craft or the object it hit and thus neither be destroyed?
     
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  3. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

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    Both atoms are made up of normal matter so interpenetration would subject atoms of each to intense interatomic electromagnetic fields which would transfer momentum and likely blow each other apart.

    But 1) There are many problems with the EM Drive, a complex bit of engineering where it is dubious that it is doing anything unusual. 2) quantum field theory and general relativity describe FTL travel different ways so no one knows how to model phenomena not yet witnessed.
     
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  5. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    So we are now capable of travelling 1000 times the speed of light ... How many weeks will it take to reach M 31? (the galaxy next door Andromeda).
    Alex
     
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  7. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    I make it

    270142.915759 years

    That's as you stipulated 100 times speed of light

    I might be incorrect so if anyone has another value I will revisit my (Google) maths and lay out the workings

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    Oops I read 100 should have been 1000

    Well I will double down check

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    Updated

    140 860.235 WEEKS (I hope)

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    Last edited: Apr 13, 2017
  8. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    2 708.85067 years

    or about

    271 generations (10 year a generation)

    27 years at 10000 x speed of light

    Doable for a return journey but not likely to happen soon

    Are my (Google) math calculations correct?

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    I'd only go if I could afford it and only if they counted there and back as 2 trips and gave frequent flyer points

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    Last edited: Apr 13, 2017
  9. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Next to work out

    You set off age 30

    30 years get there

    30 years get back

    Back at 90

    How much has Earth aged?

    How many generations have passed?

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  10. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    8,502
    I am starting to think flitting from galaxy to galaxy as in Star Trek may be just made up.

    I am slightly disillusioned.
    Alex
     
  11. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    8,502
    Yes.
    Alex
     
  12. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    To answer myself

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    I and Google calculate about 1,000 years

    YES?

    NO?

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  13. birch Valued Senior Member

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    you may need to take the elevator up or down to another dimension, get off that floor. you can't even go in reverse in time/space here in 3d.
     
  14. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    8,502
    M31 I believe is approx 2 million light years from us.

    So I think if we travel at 1000 times speed of light we are looking at a travel time of 2000 years however I understand one needs to bring special relativity into account which may or will give another figure.

    I think if we left today we probably would get there yesterday.

    But I think mass won't come close to reaching light speed the energy required is enormous... Twice infinite divided by the length of weight of the mass..look its just too complex to explain.

    Bottom line we won't be leaving here anytime soon.
    Alex
     
  15. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    I make it more about 27014 and a bit .+

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  16. froze Registered Member

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    Of course science fiction movies are made up just like science fiction based lasers weapons were made up...

    If we limit what we know as to being the limit we would never discover new things, science is about stretching the limits, looking past perceived limits. I think there will come a time when man will be able to traverse to other galaxies in a matter of seconds, not thousands of years, this is why physicists and scientists are looking at this idea of folding time and space, sure it's upper shelf science, so it may take a long time before we get there, probably outside of all of our life spans on this forum, but it has to start sometime, and that process of starting has already begun.
     
  17. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    The closer you travel to C, the slower time gets in relation to Earth, so you would still have the problem of coming back to Earth and it now being thousands of years in the future.
     
  18. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Science is making observations and explaining the observations in a way which makes sense

    Stretching the limits is more like making wild claims which cannot be justified on evidence or be tested

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  19. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    Er, what?
    Lasers in SF appeared AFTER the invention of the actual laser.

    Why would you think this?

    So far it's entirely theoretical science - with foreseeable method of practicality.
     
  20. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Earth has not aged at all.

    Traveling at c - let alone 1000 times greater than c - means our craft has (somehow) sidestepped Einsteinian limits and thus is, by definition, not subject to relativistic effects.
     

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